PORTER COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
REGULAR MEETING
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2005
6:00 P.M.

The regular meeting of the Porter County Board of Commissioners convened at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday, September 20, 2005, in the Commissioners’ Chambers of the Administration Center.

Those present were: Commissioners Robert P. Harper, John Evans, Carole Knoblock, County Attorney Gwenn Rinkenberger, Vi Wagner and Melissa Hartig.

President Harper called the meeting to order with the Pledge of Allegiance.


APPROVAL OF PAYROLL

Com. Evans moved to approve the payroll of September 19, 2005, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.


APPROVAL OF MINUTES

Com. Evans moved to approve the minutes of September 6, 2005, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

PAUL C. ZONA WILDLIFE SANCTUARY DISCUSSION

Com. Evans, “I can set the stage if you like. The Zona’s gave the property to the county years ago and the intent was we take the property and we run with it. That has happened in great strides and then all of a sudden it has kind of fallen and we just kind of have come to a standstill. What the Wildlife Management Board would like to see is a more consistent pattern in the way in which we address the issues there and spend the monies that we set aside and the upkeep of that property. We had a little marriage going with the Parks Department and that works for awhile and then it doesn’t and everyone has their own priorities and the next thing we know we are back to square one. So there have been great plans made and really what it means is an investment of the CEDIT money to carry those forward. So I think what we may need to look at is a way that the Wildlife Management Board can propose the expenditures that they need and run it back directly through us for the CEDIT funding that they need rather than have to coordinate through the Parks, not that they are unmeniable to the help that the Parks have given them and would like to see the Parks continue in many ways, but they would like to be able to kind of fund them and direct their own financing.”

Com. Harper, “I believe that’s what needs to be done myself. Now we have already approved this $25,000.00, right? Is approved for their benches, signs and so forth. So what you are talking about is putting them directly under the Commissioners for their procedures.”

Com. Evans, “They can come up with their expenditures and plans, bring it to us and we can review it and discuss it with them and then we can commit their money to them a lot faster. I think part of it is because everybody is new to the CEDIT experience and in trying to get their requests in and trying to get those things funded in the most expeditious way. It just makes it difficult to try and do that when everybody wants to get some of their money spent by the end of the year. This is September, it makes it even more difficult.”

Com. Harper, “I think we should ask our attorney exactly how we should do that.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “Well, it is just like a motion of the board, because the original intent of this was for the Wildlife Advisory Board to be our advisory board and report to us. Then a couple years ago, the Commissioners then decided they wanted to make the Park Department an intermediary step, so it’s the Commissioners’ call to make. All you have to do is make a motion that they resume being an advisory board only to us and that is done.”

Com. Evans moved to approve, Com. Knoblock seconded,

Com. Evans, “The only thing I want to say is Ed Melendez, who has been the liaison with the Parks has really done his best but Ed’s plate is awfully full. It really is, he is mowing the grass at the Calumet Trail, he’s working out at Sunset Hill, he’s everywhere and it makes it difficult. I would like to see the Park continue to help in many aspects because they have a wealth of knowledge and they have a lot of people that can give input. So don’t divorce them entirely, you can use them whenever possible.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “The way the relationship developed was the Commissioners really didn’t have employees that were able to go out and open and close the gate and do some of the mowing and do some of the things, and Ed volunteered to do it because he had Parks staff available to go out and open and close the gate. That’s what started the whole thing. There were things that the Park Department could do that we don’t have employees to do.”

Com. Harper, “You are taking it back over completely, that’s the understanding, right?”

Dr. McAfee, “Yes, sir.”

Com. Evans, “There was a time that the Parks had done some surveys and done some things and there were neighbors to the property that had encroached on the property and had less than desirable used and beat up cars, and that type of thing. Have those issues been resolved so that the property is trying to be kept pristine?”

Dr. McAfee, “Yes.”

Motion carried.

WELLNESS ISSUES AND EPA RATE CHANGES
Dave Lomaka, Porter Starke
Mary Estein, Porter Starke
Mike Anton, Anton Insurance
Len Schmidt, Hoosier Healthcare

Mr. Anton, “We have a couple presentations for you and first we are going to lead off with representatives from Porter Starke, one that you know very well, Dave Lomaka, and their finance chief, Mary. So I will ask them to come up and I will give you a little background. We became aware of this awhile back. For any number of years, I think about 12 years, Porter County Government has had a really fine relationship with Porter Starke Services in terms of them providing up with an employee assistance program. There were some issues related to some arrangements with our PPO and the relationship with Porter Starke. We had some meetings and Porter Starke has brought in a new contract on way with some extremely favorable pricing in our favor and we presented those numbers to you and now they would like to come and just kind of elaborate on that relationship and where they want to go forward with the county.”

Dave Lomaka, “With our relationship with the county, being the major provider of mental health and behavioral health, we offered about, some four years back now, the county a free employee assistance program. Which basically is a program that cost wise, and we sell it to a lot of businesses and for organizations the size of the county, would be close to $20,000.00. But we have the kind of relationship with the county that we are saying that we want to encourage county employees to make sure they are getting the benefit. An EAP gets your employees and their families (inaudible)… to three sessions, no charge, nothing out of pocket, nothing out of the county’s self insurance plan, which is the same that Porter Starke has for our employees. So it really important to try and contain those costs. There is an add on the third page we are running about the connection between health care expenses and the ________ which is unbelievable. Those numbers are clearly being seen more and more and some people say are over 90%. One of the things we want to make sure we are encouraging folks is that it is out there. If you talk with Mike and we heard some concerns that county employees were getting some services through Porter Starke, and St. Anthony’s inpatient psych unit, that’s who runs the psych unit, which is in the network, and Porter Starke is out of the network. Its like part of it is Porter Starke trying to get into the network, its not our choice, a lot of times it’s the insurance industry. More importantly with the discount we have been talking about, its actually less expensive for employees to be out of the network. So if anyone, say, John, if you came to see me today, not to say that John needs to go to Porter Starke, but if John were coming today to see me and if he was in the network, the insurance would take $20.00 for him to see me and he would be paying about $47.00 out of his pocket. With the discount we are offering through Mike to county employees it is about $42.00. Its still $20.00 to the insurance company and now it is even less to the employees. So we are trying to work that through and we have been working with Mike on his end to make sure that is something that is acceptable. So basically, just cutting all the subsequent services beyond the three sessions by 30% for all county employees and their family members. There are a lot of other providers who will actually try and make a pitch and there is a difference between me and part of a community mental health center. And ___ when there is a tragedy in the county or city park, Porter Starke as a community member responds to that, even when we are not ________, the school system has a tragedy and we are not (inaudible)…….we respond to those community based tragedies and services, that is an important distinction as to who is here and what we have. I have 200 mental health professionals in Porter and Starke Counties to deal with a lot of our issues. Whether it is in the hospital, jail, or with the coroner, you know all the places that we are at and it is important that the same places are places that all 600 county employees and family members are. I think there is a lot of bang for the buck from the county standpoint. I think we are hoping Anton Insurance sees that and you are aware of that. I don’t believe there is any kind of action that needs to be taken with this, I think we are just one of a number of providers that ___ for the employees. We have a nice relationship with the judge, she calls me up and says, Dave, this is going on, you know we like to hear it first hand. You all might have heard some of it and its important that we hear it. It is still a big organization, over 8,000 people this year, and as those numbers continue to increase, you need to be aware of that.”

Com. Harper, “We thank you for that and obviously this is an ongoing thing as I understand it, right Mike?”

Mr. Anton, “Right. I think the important thing to know here is that everything he shared with you is really for the benefit of the county employees. The county is going to continue from an employee of the benefit plan to expend that $20.00 per visit kind of an issue, so we are not necessarily saying anything about the employee health insurance issues. But the employee themselves would have to a need to take advantage of the program and continuing services are going to benefit for a better deal.”

Com. Harper, “My understanding of what was happening before was after the first three visits, they were being billed $107, is that right?”

Mr. Anton, “I know there seems to be some discussion on that issue, and what the dollars were. I guess there was a perception of a disparity between other providers and the pricing that was being afforded to the county employees that if they continued within the services of Porter Starke and finished the EAP, three free visits.”

Ms. Estein, “We had been giving a 25% discount and after talking with Mike we increased the rate to 30% so that we made sure our discount was greater than if we even were part of the network because of the differences between part of the network and being outside the network.”

Mr. Lomaka, “In any event, we never should have been billing it at 100%. Again, there is always an oddity. Somebody is in the hospital and leaves against medial advice, sometimes that changes things. There is a number of different scenarios, but that’s that one burnt hamburger. 99.9% of the time an county employee _______making sure we know that and maybe we didn’t know that coming through. There is always those possibilities but I think it is going to be real clear here that it is a cost effective service and we don’t ever want to county employees to not seek out services for those reasons, at least that first assessment and those first three sessions, even beyond that to make it very affordable.”

Com. Harper, “We don’t need to take action tonight, is that right?”

Mr. Anton, “I don’t think there is any action necessary. It if just a pricing component that they have already agreed to and we are just passing it on to Stewart Miller, the administrator from their end, and we just continue to function.”

Mr. Lomaka, “We did have an EAP contract that was kind of a zero dollar thing that we actually needed to have that contract, we’ve done it for three or four years. I am guessing, I don’t know if there is an end date, but we would have to look at it. I don’t know. I just thought of asking right now so we are going to look into it and if there is any.”

Com. Harper, “I can tell we better look into it.”

Mr. Anton, “Originally there was a contract for the EAP services and I wanted to say it was a dollar a year. And I think it was ongoing. I am not convinced the county is paying you your dollar. We might owe them seven or eight bucks.”

Com. Harper, “Thank you very much.”

Mr. Anton, “We are going to have a presentation. Leigh is going to introduce the two presenters on Wellness Programs. I will turn that over to Leigh Westergren from our office.”

Ms. Westergren, “Hoosier Healthcare has requested an opportunity to bid the Wellness Program for 2006. So they are here tonight as is our incumbent provider, NIOMS and with that I will introduce Len Schmidt and Jill Treva of Hoosier Healthcare.”

Hoosier Healthcare

Mr. Schmidt, “I am Len Schmidt, Vice president of Hoosier Healthcare.”

Ms. Chorma, “I am Jill Chorma, Wellness Coordinator for Hoosier Healthcare.”

Mr. Schmidt, “Probably over the past year, we have done 3,000 Wellness Programs. I even brought a sign here. Here’s our sign, normally when we go out to a company, we take enough signs. That was happens to be for the City of Portage, we did the city government, we did Portage Schools, and we did provide signs for that. We left you a brochure here with all our services and all the prices. On the pricing here, our basic, our general health panel and lipid profile and CBC which is $40.00. We used to be connected to the hospital and that right there was at least $250.00 for that. We have other tests available on the bottom as well as the back. You would receive these results in probably two weeks, the patients would. They would be confidential and they would get two copies, one for their physician and one for themselves.”

Ms. Chorma, “I know the county has provided that the employees have some wellness dollars that they can spend throughout the year on any wellness opportunity that they would like to. This is just a discounted package for blood work. It’s a very good price, $40.00, like Len said it is the hospital’s that would be much, much higher. You do get a lot of different testing in that $40.00 and then they do have the option of cancer screening, diabetes screening, and cardiac screening. It is very well received and we have done Lake County as well. We did about 892 employees there this past year. They were all pleased. They do get their results in their home, they fill out that purple waiver form, that’s what they fill out, check off the tests they would like. The standard panel, if they chose not to do the $40.00, they would just cross that off. Say they just wanted to do the whole 16 for cardiac risk factors, they can just check that off. The results do, there’s two results, the forms would come to two different forms, one is for them to keep at home and one is for their doctor. There is also an explanation sheet in there about each test and what it means so the lay person can understand that. Also, it is stressed that they review all of these results with their family physician. This is a wellness program for them to discuss with their family physician.”

Mr. Schmidt, “We would go to each one of the locations that you would designate. We would have plenty of phlebotomists so there would be no waiting. If they did not have a family physician, our clinic is in the Port of Indiana and they are more than welcome to see our physician if they would so desire.”

Com. Harper, “What type of participation from the city of Portage do you have?”

Mr. Schmidt, “Well, the schools had probably a little over 700 and the City of Portage was less than 75.”

Com. Harper, “How many people do the school city of Portage hire?”

Ms. Chorma, “We go every six months, we go to the schools.”

Com. Harper, “So you are counting contacts. 700 contacts?”

Mr. Schmidt, “Yes, we the screening in the fall, but they have spouses, retirees, and that is why it kind of multiplied.”

Com. Harper, “How many people fall down and take some of these other tests?”

Ms. Chorma, “Actually quite a bit. The men for the PSA screening, it is so much cheaper through the lab that we use for our clinic than if the doctor ordered it and they went to the hospital. Actually we get quite a bit of people that do that.”

Com. Harper, “Is that the main one? Some of these I don’t even recognize.”

Ms. Chorma, “The one most used is for heart disease. The glyohemoglobin is for diabetes, a known diabetic. The thyroid panel for people with hyper or hypo active thyroid. The c-reactive protein is also for cardiac disease. Then you have cancer, cancer screen for female, breast cancer and ovarian cancer and then the PSA for the men. Actually we do get a big turnout.”

Mr. Schmidt, “When you get your results, there is an explanation of all the different tests so the patient could follow up with their results.”

Com. Evans, “Do you know how the tests are done in the standard panel?”

Ms. Chorma, “There are quite a few. All your cholesterol, diabetes, kidney and liver function.

Com. Harper, “So for the Portage schools, you go there twice a year, is that what you do?”

Mr. Schmidt, “Yes.”

Com. Harper, “To all the different schools or do you go to one location or how do you do that?”

Ms. Chorma, “We do go for a week straight and each day we do three different schools at the same time. We have enough staff there because the teachers like to come in before their classes. We’ll be there from 6 to 8 in the morning and we’ll do free blood pressure screenings and then the blood draw. Really, through the whole week, we do go to the high school twice, it is such a big facility and a lot of teachers there and staff.”

Mr. Schmidt, “They have more in the fall then they do in the spring.”

Com. Harper, “How much do our employees have to spend?”

Com. Evans, “$150.00.”

Com. Harper, “So they can do basic tests and some of the other tests.”

Mr. Anton, “And you can do one battery of tests this year for example and then go to another screening process the following year so that you can make sure everything is okay.”

Mr. Schmidt, “I like the fact that the results are totally confidential. Only the patient would know and their physician.”

Com. Evans, “Isn’t that required by HIPPA?”

Mr. Schmidt, “We don’t get them even, they go right to their homes.”

Mr. Anton, “May I ask one question. They have five sites, six visits. Do you charge for the site visits or set up or anything?”

Mr. Schmidt, “No.”

Ms. Chorma, “No the only charge is for the participant. We have been working with the Indiana Department of Health, they have a grant for free bone densities, typically for females that we have a screen that comes on site and set up their own table and they will do this free through the Indiana Department of Health, which is a really nice thing they are doing. They are $40 to $50 for a screening like that and it is a nice added bonus to have them come with us. We also do have Julie Ross, she deals with a lot of the glucometers that diabetics use, they have to prick their finger and check their blood sugar. She comes on site with us sometimes and she’ll give the machine away for free, it’s a $75 machine and teach people who to do it.”

Mr. Schmidt, “We are at the Duneland YMCA tomorrow at 7:00 a.m. and we will back at the Duneland Y Thursday evening from 5 to 7 to take care of any people there that would like to do the screening. We will have plenty of staff and there is no waiting. Thank you very much.”

NIOMS

Mr. Abley, “My name is Chet Abley, I am the administrator for NIOMS, Northern Indiana Occupational Medicine Services. NIOMS is a provider for occupational medicine services for Porter County Government employees and we have done the wellness program for Porter County Government employee for the last three or four years. In that time we refine the program to fit the needs of the employees. Some of the things we have done is really tried to focus on some of the major tenants of a good wellness program and that is early detection and prevention of heart disease, detection and prevention of cancer, diabetes, and then also to offer behavior modification. So one of the things that is the central point of our program is the heart disease. We provide a risk assessment for each of the individual employees that participates. What that entails is they fill out a profile that gives out medical history, they are asked about smoking, diabetes, physical activity and nutrition. What we do then is we go to each site and we gather information on lipids and blood pressure, we get their height and weight and put that into a computer model and at the end, once all the information is complete, your risk assessment comes back and tells them whether they are at high risk for heart disease or low risk or somewhere in between. Along with that is information for each employee as to how they might modify their diet and physical activity to lower their risk for heart disease. By doing this we feel we can help prevent any catastrophic medical expenses that might occur from something like a heart attack or other heart disease related activities. The other thing we try and do is to provide ultimate flexibility for the employee and so we offer 20 different tests that might fit their own unique health needs. In addition, what we try and do is group that into packages so that it conveniently fits into their $150 benefit. So it might be a male cancer screen or a female cancer screen, a heart screen, or just a basic health profile or one that focuses on diabetes. I think the brochure you have is the program we did last year. You can see the different tests that we provide and also the different packages. We do go to each of the individual sites, so the screening is held on a different day. We go early in the morning so people don’t have to fast too long and we do all their blood draws at that point, not only for lipids and glucose, but then if there are other things they want done from the brochure then we do that at the same time. That way they don’t have to fast twice. Then at that point if people want additional services done, they can come into our facilities, one in Portage, one in Valparaiso, to have those extra tests done. One of the things that we offer that is unique within a wellness program is we offer mammograms, and that is something unique and there are several employees from Porter County Government that take advantage of that. Some of the other things that I would like to recommend for 2006 that we haven’t done in the past is while we are at the site and people are there for their blood draws, we would like to set up a nutritional display. Obviously one of the things that is a concern not only in Porter County, but in the state of Indiana and across the U. S. is obesity and I think the nutritional display sets out healthy eating habits and also gives out materials for people to determine how they can improve their nutrition and their diets. The other thing I am proposing that in the month of February 2006, that we would have a smoking cessation that could be held at sites and be available for employees. Again, smoking is a huge issue for health care and also for wellness and would recommend participation in that. The costs are outlined in the proposal and then also the brochure that you have. They are all the same except for mammograms where we had an increase in the cost to us so we had to increase mammograms. It said in the brochure $76.00 but it would increase to $100.00. Also in the proposal I outlined timing for when we would go to each site and obviously we would go to the Highway Department, the Courthouse, Sheriff’s office, Administration, North County Annex, and back to the Sheriff’s office.”

Com. Harper, “How many of our employees participate?”

Mr. Abley, “I know in 2004 I believe it was 98 and in 2005, I don’t know what the count is yet because we are still doing different exams.”

Com. Harper, “That’s not necessarily employees, that could be family members?”

Mr. Abley, “It s 98 total, I am not sure how it is broken down between employees and spouses.”

Com. Harper, “How often do you do this a year?”

Mr. Abley, “Once.”

Com. Evans, “Then you have five different sites, right? We have a set charge for each site?”

Mr. Abley, “Yes.”

Com. Evans, “Per employee, besides the site, is there . . .?”

Mr. Abley, “Yes, there is a $100.00 set up charge and then the charge per employee.”

Com. Knoblock, “If you can’t go one date, you can go someplace else in the county?”

Mr. Abley, “Certainly. And if he can’t get to any of the sites that we’re there, they could always come into the clinic located right across the street from the hospital and one located on Lancer Street in Portage, any time of year.”

Mr. Anton, “My recommendation would be that you would take this under advisement so that you have an opportunity to consider the two presentations and also give an opportunity to check the references. I know you were focusing on the city of Portage and the school city of Portage, you might choose to get a little bit of feedback on that. Obviously NIOMS is a known commodity, Hoosier Healthcare obviously do a number of screenings and what have you, but they are not that familiar with us. So maybe we could take that time to work on that.”

Com. Evans, “That is a good suggestion.”

Com. Evans moved to take them under advisement and see which is the best firm, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

USE OF CEDIT FUNDS FOR IMPROVEMENTS AT SUNSET HILL
Ed Melendez, Park Superintendent

Mr. Melendez, “You have three quotes in front of you tonight. The first one is one that we have for lighting on three poles out at Sunset Hill Park. What we did was those three poles are in the parking lot area. We have one at the west end which we have no lights at the immediate time as well as the east end and then we have a set of lights right in the middle with three lights on it. With some of our events in the fall and winter, it becomes real dark with no lights in the parking lot and with the time change it makes it a little difficult for the people, cross country, as well as some of the events we have during the late summer months. So it gives us some security, too. It has also helped the Sheriff’s Department to see who is in there at the time, too. We are recommending All Phase as the individuals. The second one we have is galvanized chain link fencing. We have two bids, the other one would not bid on it. We have the south billed, just south of the power lines that has been cleaned up by the utility company and now it exposes all the neighbors and there was no fencing that was in there so it’s a open pathway for park users as well as neighbors to enter into the southern portion of the park and the other one comes off of 700. We have a campsite back in there, our split rail fence is finally decayed away with some new development of the housing back in there, we felt it was time to boundary, make sure that the boundary markers are marked off. So we are planning a four foot chain link fence to help define the park property at that point in time. The other one that we have is the basement at the residential house that we have in the park. We had three different quotes, the one that you see is from Polzi, because they are completely replacing the wall and coming in with 352 new blocks, mortar, reinforced rod and with the guarantee and new back fill and helping with the drainage away from the house. The other two came in with straps and support anchors outside. That was done about 11 years ago to the basement and it has failed because the crack in the basement is larger than it was 10 years ago. So we are looking at the house as well maintained and worthwhile to save that is why we are only replacing one wall. That’s it.”

Com. Harper, “So what are you asking us to do?”

Mr. Melendez, “We are asking you on the number one items for the galvanized chain link fencing to approve onto Northwest Fencing. Indiana Fencing, number two, is the Polzi restoration for the basement wall, and number three is All Phase for the three additional park lights.”

Com. Evans, “I have a questions on Pozzi’s bid. Is $14,080.00, it’s the highest of the three.”

Mr. Melendez, “That is correct because the other ones were just anchors and leaving the existing brick or just straps and still using the existing blocks which are already starting to have cracks and openings.”

Com. Evans, “Then what you are saying is the other two didn’t meet the bid specifications.”

Mr. Melendez, “That is correct. Because we were looking for total replacement.”

Com. Evans moved to accept the All Phase offer for $2,163.29 for lights and light poles, Northwest Indiana Fence proposal of $26,800.00 for chain link fence, and Pozzi Restoration, Inc. for $14,080.00 for basement wall in the resident’s house, Com. Knoblock seconded,

Com. Knoblock, “Does somebody live in this house?”

Mr. Melendez, “Yes, we have someone there all the time in the park.”

Motion carried.

Mr. Melendez, “We have one more information, we are pursuing on the three parcels of property. We will be back to the Commissioners. We are getting the appraisals. They are 90 acres, 5 acres and 3 acres. We are moving forward so we will be back. If there is some input we will come back and see you folks before we make the final decisions.”

Com. Harper, “The Council has asked they get a report from any CEDIT money.”

Mr. Melendez, “Right, I was there. You folks, too, we have that immediately and would be glad to give that to you.”

Com. Evans, “I just want to make sure you weren’t offended by the Zona property thing. I know you worked out there very diligently and you put in a lot of effort. I don’t want you to be offended, they just want to move a little faster.”

Mr. Melendez, “We understand. There is some property that is available and it just seems that when I make the contact, maybe it is somebody from the committee and a couple of them will try to pursue, which is fine. We are still looking at the maintenance and unfortunately we are dealing with some of the vendors that we have to buy through for some of the material. A lot of the money has to be paid for those folks because they don’t like dealing with government and they know government is slow so that has unfortunately pushed a lot of their dealings back a little bit. I can understand it is still going to move forward and still work with the folks.”

Com. Evans, “How about the Calumet Trail?”

Mr. Melendez, “We have some material that we have already bought and the guys are fabricating that and we have material set aside also, a maintenance program is being set up and will be given to the National Park, the state parks and their assistance as well as you folks will see the agenda on to that one. So they are happy with what’s going on, our complaints have only been mostly vandalism out there. October 14 the Park Board and the Park staff is having an open house at the Dunn’s Bridge. We are going to invite you folks, I am just letting it out early. We will be doing a dedication on that Friday at 4:00 to dedicate it as one of the county facilities. Thank you.”

Com. Harper, “Let me bring this up for discussion. It seems to me and I brought this up before when we did this, but we are somehow micromanaging Park business. And I am wondering if at some point we might not even be getting ourselves in a legal problem doing this and…..”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “I agree, I don’t think we should be doing this.”

Com. Harper, “And I think that the Park Board, once we turn the EDIT money over, I think that money is part of a budget and its turned over and for us to be micromanaging this not is it a mistake, and the Park Board is a separate appointed board and someday, could run into legal problems for the county.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “I agree, I don’t think you guys should have taken any action at all on selecting any of the proposals here, that’s for the Park Board, not you. He should be giving these to the Park Board and they should be authorizing which vendor to take and we should just be told what the claims are for for the CEDIT. This is getting all turned around.”

Com. Harper, “I brought it up last time and wanted to do it that way and it wasn’t done. I just think by the next meeting we should put this on the agenda and make a decision on it.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “There is a difference between advising us what the CEDIT plan says, is that we give them $400,000.00, they are supposed to submit a plan to us, the money is supposed to be spent pursuant to the plan. That doesn’t mean we are supposed to come in project by project and approve vendors and projects and quotes and take over the bidding process of the Park Board. What it means is they are supposed to give us a plan and then spend it pursuant to plan so we know it is going for park purposes. That doesn’t mean we are supposed to take over the Park Board function.”

Com. Harper, “I feel real uncomfortable with this.”

Mr. Melendez, “Please keep in mind that was approved by a construction committee and then given to the Park Board. All we want to do is make sure you folks understand and still with the written reports, you are still going to get how that is broken down.”

Com. Harper, “That’s fine but that is not what happened tonight. We took board action on these things and I don’t think we can do that. What if we said no tonight to something that the Park Board wants to do? We don’t have jurisdiction. I just think it is fine to get a report but this is the Park Board’s call.”

Mr. Melendez, “We feel that we should come before you. If it is in written writing that you want, that’s fine folks.”

Com. Harper, “We went over this the last time and I am not faulting you for it at all because I brought this up the last time we did this. So maybe the attorney, by the next meeting, can come up with a firm motion that we can settle this once and for all.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “Well, we just have no jurisdiction to do Park Board business. All we are supposed to is oversee how the CEDIT money is spent, we are not supposed to be having the proposals submitted to us and voting on them. That is not our place. Our place is to get a plan for the Park Board and see to it that the CEDIT money is being spent for park purposes. This is not our place.”

Com. Harper, “Let’s get it straightened out.”

COMMISSOINERS’ REPORTS

All Districts:

1. INDOT claim voucher reimbursing Porter County $5,276.91. This is for Porter County Bridge Inspection, Supplemental Agreement #1 (2005), Project #BR-NBIS (463). Recommend approval.

Com. Harper moved to approve, Com. Evans seconded, motion carried.

Center District: Com. Harper

1. Mystic Springs Subdivision, Performance Letter of Credit #ILS201237, from Fifth Third Bank in the amount of $831,000.00. Expiration date is August 23, 2007. Owners are First Site Development, LLC. Recommend approval.

Com. Harper moved to approve, Com. Evans seconded, motion carried.


Com. Evans, “Our engineer has been in contact with the engineer from the City of Portage and their Planner in regard to the widening of Willowcreek Road south of US Highway 6 and probably all the way to 700 North and there is going to be a request coming from them for an additional right of way by our North County Annex there and we’ll need to have some discussion as to whether we want to donate that right of way or whether we are going to see if we can’t incorporate the expense of moving some light fixtures, and lights.”

Mr. Schelling, “I do want to mention that I did get an offer from Portage just recently but it was too late to put it on the agenda. I will do at the next Commissioners’ meeting and before that I will (inaudible)…”

Com. Evans, “Is it going to require any expense on our part?”

Mr. Schelling, “No. (inaudible)…”

Com. Harper, “I will read this: Porter County is in the process of designing reconstruction projects for County Road 100 South corridor from Lake County Line to State Road 2, a distance of five miles. The corridor will remain in two lane facility and will be upgraded to current design criteria due to area development. The first project will be done in two phases, the first project is three miles in length, from CR 600 West to State Road 2 and has over $2.5 million federal money. The second phase is two miles from Lake County Line to CR 600 West and has a little less than $2 million in federal money. We have additional $1 million of demonstration federal money for the project from Congressman Visclosky to bring the total federal money to $5.5 million. There will be a designated public hearing early in 2006 to inform the public of the project and to receive public input. We just want to inform the public of this project and answer any questions they might have. If you have any immediate questions, you may call me, Dave Schelling, at 465-3574 or Fred Halderman from Moner Group at 462-1158. That is a notice that is going to be signed by Dave Schelling and is asking for our approval.”

Com. Harper moved to approve, Com. Evans seconded, motion carried.

Com. Harper, “Dave, did you want to add anything about the Opera House?”

Mr. Schelling, “I had a meeting at the site with Bill Cooley from the Opera House Foundation, and also representatives from the historic landmark foundation. It was really a good meeting and thank goodness we looked because there was a gas leak in the basement which we found. I was able to find some old plans from the ‘60’s, 1967 renovation of the Opera House, plus I got Design Organizations’ plans and I have been able to make copies of those. I will be sending those out to the folks at Memorial Opera House Foundation and also the Historic Landmark Foundation. I also got a CD that I am going to give to the Opera House for those documents for their information. It was an interesting review of the building. The intent is to get a real thorough investigation of the building so that they can get a ten year maintenance schedule for the building and keep up on anything that might deteriorate.”

Com. Harper, “Have you found all the plans you think you need to find?”

Mr. Schelling, “Yes, I think so. It would be nice to find the original ones from the building, but I was pleased that what I was able to find and I was very pleased with Design Organization’s cooperation. They loaned me their original documents which I really appreciated and I am sure to get them back to them as soon as I could.”

Com. Harper, “Now you also wanted to talk about the County Home demolition project?”

Mr. Schelling, “We have an agreement with DLZ and I met with several of their engineers yesterday and the bottom line is they should have a notice to bidders prepared for the Commissioners at your October 18 meeting. That would be getting it ready to bid out and informing the bidders that the documents are going to be available. In all likelihood, in that notice we are not going to say that the documents are ready on the 18th, so it will probably be several days later because we need a little bit of time to redo it with Ed Melendez and you and make sure we have everything lined up, but we are progressing. I gave them some documents that Ed was able to dig out of the Surveyor’s office and various other locations.”
Com. Harper, “You discussed prevailing wage for the county?”

Mr. Schelling, “Yes, we will need to set the prevailing wage for this project because of the size of the project.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “Dale Brewer is our contact person. We just contact her and they set a meeting and get it done.”

Mr. Schelling, “I will go ahead and contact Dale. I do have one other item.”

Com. Evans, “The railroad?”

Mr. Schelling, “The closed it and they are working on it. I was really kind of concerned because when that contact person that I had seemed like a good contact, I guess he is down in Louisiana now because of the hurricane, but they finally got it going. The last item I have is every two years we mandated to have our bridge inspections, and we just completed the 2002-2004 inspections with USI and you might remember we had a supplemental agreement because there were a couple bridges that needed some additional underwater inspections. So at this time, we need to get things lined up for our 2006 and 2008 bridge inspections. I have a document for requesting proposals for that work. That will be 80% federal money, would be reimbursed that amount of money.”

Com. Evans moved to put out the request for the proposals for the 2006-2008 bridge inspection program, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

CORRESPONDENCE

Treasurer’s monthly report for August 2005 is on file.
Court Security monthly report for August 2005 is on file.
Weights and Measures monthly report for August 2005 is on file.

Approve WVLP radio to set up table on Courthouse Square on Tuesdays and Thursdays in conjunction with the Farmer’s Market

Com. Harper, “Is there anyone here on this tonight?”

Com. Evans, “Is this a new radio station?”

Com. Harper, “I don’t know, just what I read.”

Ms. Hartig, “I thought someone was going to be here for this tonight.”

Com. Knoblock, “Where are they from?”

Com. Harper, “It says they are local. 256 W. Indiana Avenue.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “We usually have a policy that we have people appear in person and tell us a little bit about themselves. I don’t know why they just don’t do that.”

Com. Harper, “They are not for profit.”

Vicki Urbanik, “I know a little bit about them. Their studio is right over there on Indiana. They have been on the air for a little over a year. They have like community programs once a week and then they a mix of music. It is just a little ____ station.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “I think it would be prudent to have somebody appear before us and answer some questions before we approve it.”

Com. Evans, “They only want to do it if the weather permits.”

Com. Knoblock, “Should we find out and address it at the next meeting?”
Atty. Rinkenberger, “Do we have time to do that?”

Com. Knoblock, “It says to the end of October.”

Com. Evans, “If they are a 501C3, Non profit, and it looks like it is neighborhood broadcasting, I think we ought to approve it contingent upon certificate of insurance naming us as additional insured. The market is already going to be there so that could already be going on and the weather seems to be a factor.”

Com. Evans moved to approve, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

Request for additional appropriation-Commissioners

Fund 01.30 $6,883.20 Acct 3110 Legal

To cover attorney fees for pending litigation regarding the proposed landfill.

Com. Evans moved to approve, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

Request for additional appropriation-Highway

Fund 02.91 $25,000 acct 3650 vehicle repair

Fund 02.91 $85,000 acct 2210 gas, oil and lube

To cover equipment repairs before winter and monies for fuel due to price increases.

Com. Evans moved to approve, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

APPOINTMENT TO REGIONAL BUS AUTHORITY

Com. Harper, “We have a board we need to make an appointment to. It is the Regional Transportation Authority Board which became on July 1, 2005, the Regional Bus Authority. We have an opening for a member to be appointed to that board. Do I hear a motion on that?”

Com. Knoblock moved to appoint Jeff Chidester, Com. Evans seconded, motion carried.

APPOINTMENT TO WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT BOARD

Com. Harper, “The Workforce Development set up in Indiana has changed drastically and the power is really .. . . . and the meetings I have attended are complicated. They will now be centralized more down state, however, under the new set up a designated County Commissioner along with the mayors of two cities in Porter County, will be voting on one person to put on that board for the Regional Workforce Board. This covers the seven county area including Lake County. Further, we will be voting on a joint member. The three member board will be voting on a joint member with the board from LaPorte County, which will be the designated Commissioner from over there plus the mayors of Michigan City and LaPorte. The main duty of the designated Commissioners is going to be to get together and vote on these people. If it is all right with my fellow Commissioners and since I already got started on this thing, I will go ahead and finish that and be the designated Commissioner on that board.”

Com. Evans, “That is fine by me.”

Com. Knoblock, “Its fine by me.”

Com. Evans moved to approve Commissioner Harper to continue to participate on the Workforce Development Board, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

Com. Harper, “By the way, some of this needs to be done by the end of the month, and have our attorney take a look at a draft of an agreement for the local elected officials to be (inaudible)….. to be the designated board member plus the mayor of Portage and the mayor of Valpo.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “I have my copy.”


LONNIE STEELE RESIGNATION FROM EXPO CENTER

Com. Harper, “The other thing I want to announce tonight that Lonnie Steele, who has been the contract director of the Expo Center for many years, and I was going to try and look up how many year, John, do you know?”

Com. Evans, “I don’t know.”

Com. Harper, “Has tendered his resignation to take new employment. Because of that, which I think intends to be effective at the end of this month. Because of that we need to consider that it was a contract position and I am suggesting that we go to the Council at their next meeting and ask to make it a salary position. I don’t know how that changed, at some point it got changed to a contract position despite the fact that the contract provided for the payment of insurance. And I think for continuity of the whole thing we have it as a salary position. Number two, I think we should ask Melissa to start advertising it and we’ll talk about the description. I notice that attached to his contract there is a . . . do you have that?”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “The problem with advertising at this point in time is the, if we go to the Council they have to change from contract to salary, they are going to have to set the salary and we don’t know what the salary is going to be set at. It will be kind of tricky.”

Com. Harper, “Lets try and get it started. I would assume they would probably set it at the rate that its at right now, at least $38,800.00 I think.”

Com. Knoblock moved to approve putting the Expo Center’s Director’s position to a salaried position, Com. Evans seconded, motion carried.

Com. Harper, “Probably we are not going to get this done in time so we will discuss it at the meeting two weeks from tonight a temporary director until we can get someone in.”

NATURAL GAS RATE DISCUSSION

Com. Knoblock, “I have two things, the natural gas rate with the gentleman that was here last meeting, we said we would do something this month, but I don’t think he is here. Do we wait?”

Com. Evans, “I would like to get that locked in as soon as possible because it is going to do nothing but escalate. I thought he was going to come back.”

Com. Harper, “I am a little leery of it because I think it could be a win lose situation.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “It could be a lose situation because of the savings that they showed us both times we asked them to present it to us, the savings were not very substantial compared to the possible risks. So I think we were going to take a little closer look at it and see. Its not a win-win, its not; it’s a possible win.”

Com. Harper, “Lets put it on the schedule for two weeks from tonight. I just asked everybody to look at because I see where gas is going to be a risk potential.”

CHANGE MICROPHONES IN COMMISSIONERS CHAMBERS
Com. Knoblock, “I have one more thing. We need these microphones changed. There’s not many people here today, I don’t know if they are hearing us or not.”

Com. Harper, “Here’s what I think. I was trying to think about that. I think we should, lets do this. Let’s have one of the fellows from the Opera House come over and run through a list of what might be done and lets put it out for proposals to some different people. We can have them present it, and serve us a suggestion of what might be done and then we will put it out for proposals. Its my understanding the ones in the back aren’t even hooked up. For two years I sat in the back of that room and haven’t been able to hear what is going on. Could you hear last night? I sat through a bunch of hearings and strained to hear. So let’s do that, we’ll call there this week and see if she will send somebody over to do a complete assessment then we will put it out for proposal.”

Com. Knoblock, “The speakers are there but they are not hooked up.”

DISPUTE WITH EXPO CENTER FROM MR. MARIO ALVAREZ

Com. Harper, “I know Mr. Alvarez is here, I understand that you have a dispute going on with a billing you are getting from the Expo Center. I will tell you, in my belief, we cannot sit here and micromanage the Expo Center. I did tell the staff that you called, that we would put you on the schedule for two weeks to speak on that. I will tell you that in my opinion, you can talk to our attorney tonight about it, but we have someone in charge of that center and we cannot micromanage it, that is my opinion. Do you want to add anything to that?”

Com. Evans, “No, I am not aware of any dispute.”

Com. Harper, “So if you want to be on the schedule for two weeks, we will put you on the schedule, I know you feel it is an emergency, but it has to be handled through the legal channels and I would ask our attorney to talk to you after the meeting.”

Com. Evans, “Is this for a past event?”

Com. Harper, “It is a dispute over the bill and there is some talk about the disputed amount, it is not paid for.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “I am not going to sit down and talk to him about that. I represent the Expo Center so if I am going to talk to anybody, it will be them first and then him because I would probably be representing them if they said the dispute was legitimate. So if we are going to meet, I would want to meet with a representative from the Expo Center and him at the same time because they are my client.”

PLAN COMMISSION

Petition for Contractor’s Registration, 1st reading
Robert Thompson, Director

Mr. Thompson, “This is Plan Commission Resolution 05-13 and it is concerning contractor’s registration. This was before the Plan Commission at their August 24th hearing which was approved and recommended approval to the Commissioners by an 8-0 vote.”

Com. Harper, “Why don’t you tell us about the fees?”

Mr. Thompson, “Essentially what this does, its registration, its not licensing. Licensing involves testing so I want to clear that up real fast, we are not testing, just registering. Registration would require all contractors, sub-contractors, and specialty contractors to come in to the Building and Planning offices and file an application for this and it would show a number of items. One, they have liability insurance in place according to the laws and that they have Worker’s Compensation in place and also that they have a recorded bond in place of $5,000.00 according to Indiana State statutes. The application fee will be $50.00 and that is one time. The filing fee is $50.00 so the first time will be a total of $100.00. What we are considering doing is maybe waiving one of the $50.00 fees to try to get the contractors in prior to January 1st. After January 1st, they would have to pay the full amount. We want everybody to try and get registered prior to January 1st because after that we will be asking on the permits, that they list all subcontractors on that. I mean I can see a slight grace period on the situation but after the grace period is up, they must have their contractors and subcontractors listed or we will not issue them a permit for this because we must be checking to make sure their liability worker’s compensation and bond are all in place and up to date.”

Com. Knoblock, “It’s good for five years, right?”

Mr. Thompson, “Correct, the application is good for five years but we will have a continually renewal funds on a yearly basis.”

Com. Harper, “I would like to say that we went over it at the Plan Commission that we are one of the few governmental groups around that do not require some sort of licensing. That’s it’s not only protection for the public but its protection for the legitimate contractors. So it is protection on both sides. The fee you could say minimal fee so I encourage to pass this.”

Com. Evans, “My only question is, registration versus licensing, it’s not licensing, you said it is registration. Are we protecting the public by not checking to see if they are qualified to do the work. Is there maybe a possibly of requiring, since every other community in Porter County requires that the contractors come in and do something similar, is there maybe a possibility of requiring that if you are going to register with Porter County that you must be licensed in another municipality? I don’t want to see the undue burden of dollars placed on these people either, but I think someplace along the line to make them accountable to the general public that they know their trades. They should take a license, or pass a license requirement.”

Mr. Thompson, “In certain situations for example, the plumbers. Their state licensed and I wouldn’t be surprised if eventually the electrical group might end up going that way. I don’t know. But right now the only thing we can do with plumbers is to make sure they are registered. Now we can ask them if they have their Indiana state license. And if they don’t, I guess we probably could refuse to register them and refuse them to work in Indiana because they are supposed to be licensed with the state and I know there is something with the state building officials and in the past they have gone around with their building inspectors to check on things. I guess to answer your question on that I would be concerned if there was a contractor that strictly works in the unincorporated area are we going to unduly burden them to go to some municipality to get tested. Valparaiso has just registration, Chesterton is just registration, Hebron is registration, Burns Harbor is registration, Portage is licensing. Lake County is licensing, however, one of the things we did when we did this to kind of familiarize everybody with it, I asked Ned Kovacovich from Lake County to come over. Ned flat out told our group do not do licensing in Porter County for one reason, you do not have the staff to be able to handle it. Because he has one to two staff members just strictly do licensing. He flat out told everybody that Porter County doesn’t have the staff to do licensing. That is one of the reasons why I kept on trying to steer everybody from going to licensing.”

Com. Evans, “I like the fact that you are going to check their insurance and make sure that is in order too, because if they are not qualified to do the job that is where they are going to get hit.”

Mr. Thompson, “And even with the bond in place, granting a $5,000.00 bond is not a great amount of money but if for example, Mike goes out there and sees a serious violation, and they are refusing to correct it, they can at least have some money to go back on to try to get some money out of the bond towards correcting it. But there again, its limited of what you can use the bond for. Bond has to be an exact violation of the building code, if somebody doesn’t like your _____, we can’t use the bond for that.”

Com. Harper, “I agree with you that it is a baby step. There is a lot that needs to be done but we’ve gone so long without anything, it’s a start.”
Com. Evans, “It creates a registry for people to call in and say I’ve got so and so who gave me an estimate on blacktopping my driveway, and are they registered in Porter County?”

Mike Haller, “It kind of gives us a start on a data base. We are going to mail out something regarding the codes.”

Com. Knoblock, “Who’s involved with this?”

Mr. Thompson, “We do have a listing of them and we do refer them to specialty contractors and I guess asphalt paving would fall under specialty type contractor. I will give you an example, if I go out and decide I am going to build a house and I am going to be the general contractor on it, I do not have to register. However, there is some stipulation that if I go and build this house and move into this house, I can’t go off somewhere else within a three year period and build another home and say I am the general contractor because then now it is starting to look like you are in the general contracting business and this is kind of a side business for you. So I mean, yes, we do look at it as an individual going in and wanting to do that they don’t have to register, however, they can’t build another one within a certain time frame.”

Com. Knoblock, “I was strictly talking about asphalt driveways. Do you still have to have a license for that? Or registration I should say.”

Mr. Thompson, “That would be under specialty contractors.”

Com. Evans moved to approve the registration of contractors in Porter County,

Com. Evans, “You need to correct your form, it says licensing.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “It will require two readings and I don’t think this is in final form.”

Mr. Thompson, “No, its not. I want to at least get it approved and I will have it down to the Commissioners next week.”

Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

With no further business the meeting was recessed.

Com. Evans moved to recess, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PORTER COUNTY, INDIANA

Robert P. Harper
John A. Evans
Carole M. Knoblock

Attest: Sandra K. Vuko, Auditor